"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

UPDATE 8:35 a.m. ET: Andrew Breitbart has released the first photo, reportedly sent to a young woman via Anthony Weiner’s AOL account, “after she asked him to confirm that he was taking photographs contemporaneously, in conjunction with their apparent online communications.”

Groan. Indeed, the L.A. prosecutor has waded into the tall grass to question Tommy Christopher’s previous exoneration of Anthony Weiner on the accusations — promoted by @PatriotUSA76 and @goatsred — that the congressman had exchanged inappropriate DMs with two teenage girls.

Interestingly, Patterico’s re-examination of this accusation involves yet a third teenager, who was the subject of my May 30 post:

So there were at least three minors, fans of Weiner, whose involvement in this story have raised questions. But yeah, Weiner’s got his private security firm investigating this, so there’s obviously no need to get law enforcement involved . . . Dan Collins comments:

As many people have stated, the Congressman’s own behavior has been the most damning evidence against him. The sudden doubling of the number of people he was following on Twitter, in order to dilute the focus on the original 91 is a part of that, of course. The lies about hacking that turned into lies about pranking are another part. His ridiculous claim that he’s hired a private security firm in order to prevent federal resources from having to be consumed with this matter is another, and his behavior toward the press, whom he habitually courts, yet another.

This is one of those situations where we don’t know what we don’t know, yet what we do know is sufficiently suggestive that speculation necessarily runs rampant. Last week I contacted a congressional staffer to ask if a certain member of Congress would be issuing a statement calling for an investigation of the allegations against Weiner. I was told no, but: “If that changes I’ll let you know.”

UPDATE III: Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit proclaims “Weiner Is Cooked,” which remains to be seen. As I observed at The American Spectator, Congress is in recess this week, which means that this scandal will need a week’s worth of “legs” if it is to be the subject of congressional inquiry when the recess is over.